Nan attends the Palace Theater in Canterbury and watches Kitty Butler perform as a male impersonator for the first time.

Kitty presents Nan with a rose during a performance, then invites her backstage for their first private meeting.

Nan moves to London as Kitty's dresser after Kitty rejects her Canterbury contract and signs with agent Walter Bliss.

After jealousy boils over at a Christmas party, Kitty and Nan return home and make love for the first time.

Walter proposes that Nan join Kitty's act as a second male impersonator, and Nan takes the stage name Nan King.

The duo act of Kitty and Nan King becomes a celebrated hit, bringing both women fame and higher earnings.

A heckler at the Deacon theater shouts that Nan and Kitty are toms, causing Kitty to flee the stage in panic.

Nan returns early from Whitstable and discovers Walter and Kitty in bed together, learning they plan to marry.

Nan storms out of Kitty and Walter's room, taking her men's clothing and their saved money from the theater.

Wearing men's clothing on London's streets, Nan is mistaken for a male sex worker and begins taking clients.

Diana Lethaby follows Nan in a carriage, takes her to her mansion, and asks her to become her live-in companion.

Diana buys Nan an expensive suit and takes her to the Cavendish Club to introduce her to a circle of wealthy lesbians.

Diana discovers Nan and Zena together in Nan's room and expels both women from her mansion immediately.

Nan tracks down Florence Banner in a working-class neighborhood and moves in with Florence and her brother Ralph as their housekeeper.

Nan publicly rejects Kitty's offer to resume their secret affair and kisses Florence in front of the rally crowd.

Nan King's story begins when she first encounters Kitty Butler's dazzling stage act in Canterbury and is drawn irresistibly into Kitty's world. Moving to London as Kitty's dresser, Nan joins her act as a male impersonator and the two become both famous and lovers. Their relationship unravels when Kitty chooses a secret marriage to their agent Walter Bliss over a life with Nan, forcing Nan out into the streets with nothing but her men's clothing. Desperate and alone, Nan falls into sex work before being taken in by the wealthy widow Diana Lethaby, who introduces her to a world of luxury and lesbian society. A confrontation at Diana's mansion ends with Nan expelled and penniless once more, until she finds her way to Florence Banner, a socialist who accepts Nan completely. At a public rally, Nan rejects Kitty's final attempt to reclaim her and declares her love for Florence openly, completing her journey from hidden desires to an authentic life.

The headline events of Nan King's journey through love, loss, and self-discovery.

Nan grows up in Whitstable helping her family run an oyster parlor, with her future seemingly fixed in place.

Kitty accepts an invitation to dine at Nan's family home, eating oysters and learning about them from Nan's father.

Kitty tells Nan she wants them to be like sisters rather than lovers, and Nan agrees to suppress her feelings.

Kitty performs her first London show at the Star theater to an enthusiastic crowd, earning restrained praise from Walter.

Walter instructs Kitty and Nan to follow men around London and study their mannerisms in order to improve the act.

At a Christmas party, a musician flirts with Nan in her gown without recognizing her, sparking an outburst of jealousy from Kitty.

Nan writes a letter to her sister Alice confessing her feelings for Kitty; Alice replies with cold disdain and cuts off the subject.

Nan and Kitty perform together in Cinderella at the Britannia theater before the building burns down.

After leaving Kitty, Nan self-isolates in a cheap tenement room for weeks, refusing to eat or go outside.

A servant brings Nan a pie wrapped in a newspaper bearing an announcement of Kitty and Walter's marriage and new act.

Mrs. Best discovers Nan's men's costumes and assumes she brought a male client home, evicting her on the spot.

Nan moves in with Ms. Milne and meets Florence across the street; Florence initially mistakes Nan for a man.

Diana dresses Nan as mythological figures including Salome and Hermaphroditus and displays her to guests as a living statue.

At the opera for her birthday, Nan slips away to watch Kitty and Walter perform their diminished new father-and-son act.

Nan overhears Annie telling Florence she cannot grieve forever with such a beautiful woman living right inside her home.

Nan's life in Whitstable lays the groundwork for her later journey, with the oyster parlor and her family defining both her class and her sense of self. The early days of her friendship with Kitty—dinner at the parlor, the move to London, their growing intimacy—give way to tension as Kitty insists on a sisterly bond and Nan struggles to contain her feelings. Their performing lives bring small humiliations and pressures, from studying men on London's streets to Kitty's jealousy at a Christmas party and Alice's cruel response to Nan's written confession. After losing Kitty, Nan endures weeks of isolation, the shock of seeing their wedding announcement in a crumpled newspaper, and eviction before finding temporary refuge with Ms. Milne and first glimpsing Florence. In Diana's household, Nan is transformed into a living ornament and secretly slips away to watch Kitty's diminished new act, feeling the full distance between who she was and who she has become. The pool ends with Nan overhearing a pivotal conversation that signals her growing importance to Florence, quietly planting the seed of their future love.

The supporting scenes that shape Nan's world and the people around her.

Nan returns to Canterbury repeatedly just to watch Kitty perform, becoming her most devoted and recognizable admirer.

Nan learns that Kitty has rejected her Canterbury contract extension and plans to go to London with her new agent.

News of comedian Gully Sutherland's death by suicide reaches Nan and Kitty at the party, and they share their first kiss.

Walter buys Nan a blue suit for the act, but Kitty warns that Nan looks too much like a real boy.

Nan and Kitty meet an openly lesbian singer and her dresser; Kitty calls them toms and refuses their dinner invitation.

After the Deacon incident, Kitty grows distant and announces it looks odd for her and Nan to share a room.

Nan's visit to Whitstable after the Britannia fire feels deeply alienating; Alice refuses to apologize for or revisit her cold letter.

Nan meets a male sex worker named Alice who explains the categories and social hierarchy of sex work in London.

Diana tells Nan a Persian story about a beggar choosing safety or pleasure, then asks Nan which kind of life she would choose.

Diana and her friends attempt to sexually assault Zena at the costume ball; Nan intervenes and insults Diana to her face.

Nan wakes the morning after being expelled from Diana's house to find Zena has vanished with all their remaining money.

Florence confesses she loved Lillian, who died in childbirth, and Nan admits a woman rather than a man reduced her to poverty.

Florence takes Nan to the Boy in the Boat pub, where patrons recognize Nan King and coax her back to singing.

In bed together for the first time, Florence asks about Nan's past and Nan reveals her full history as a sex worker and Diana's kept companion.

Ralph loses his place during his socialist rally speech, and Nan rushes to the stage to deliver it to thunderous applause.

Nan's transformation begins with small but significant acts—returning repeatedly to watch Kitty perform and learning that Kitty is bound for London—before a tragedy at a Christmas party unlocks their first kiss and their love becomes real. The creation of Nan King the performer forces Nan to confront what her masculine appearance truly means, while Kitty's growing discomfort, from shunning the openly lesbian couple to demanding separate beds, signals the inevitable collapse of their relationship. Nan's alienating visit home and her sister's rejection push her further from her roots, and her descent into sex work introduces her to an underground community and, eventually, to Diana's consuming world. Diana's Persian fable crystallizes Nan's hunger for pleasure over safety, but a moral crisis at Diana's costume ball—when Nan defends Zena against assault—costs Nan everything and begins her real journey toward herself. Finding Florence is a slow revelation, built through confessions exchanged in the dark and a joyful night out at a working-class pub that shows Nan where she truly belongs. Nan's most public turning point arrives at a socialist rally, where she delivers a rousing speech in Ralph's place, rejects Kitty's final offer, and claims Florence as her chosen family in front of a cheering crowd.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that transform Nan from girl to woman.